Frog God Games blogshttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog
enA Look At Lost Lands Cosmologyhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/look-lost-lands-cosmology
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>As I continue to work my way through the vast pile of awesome that is <em>The Blight</em> (<em>Tome of Blighted Horrors </em>should be releasing the next day or so, btw; I just approved the final proof of the 5e version), much of what I'm dealing with is correlation with the rest of the campaign world. Richard Pett wrote much this masterpiece 7 or 8 years ago, and it was for his home campaign. So he didn't take any sort of Lost Lands issues into account, of course.</p>
<p>Fortunately when Bill tasked me to start building the cohesive Lost Lands setting back in 2010/2011 I was already aware of <em>The Blight</em>. I didn't have the manuscript, but I had seen parts of it and had written the adventure <em>Bloody Jack</em> for it as it was planned to be released through the abortive imprint Sinister Adventures. Well Richard kept writing on it, and as I constructed the Lost Lands I always kept the fundamentals of <em>The Blight </em>(its cultural, historical, and geographical requirements) in mind and essentially kept a blank space on my map where I could plug it in when the time came. So we're not starting from scratch or anything, but there are a lot of details that I've got to check and double check against my Lost Lands Bible that I've been compiling over the last 6 years or so. And in many places, <em>The Blight</em> development is helping me to fill in some blanks I had left in it for just that purpose.</p>
<p>A quick for instance would be the technology level in the Blight being more advanced than much of the expected tech for a typical Pathfinder, S&amp;W, or 5e game. We actually crossed this bridge before when we published <em>Razor Coast</em> in 2013 because it had firearms in it. Bill about had a seizure over that because he didn't want firearms brought into his game world. I totally empathized, because I'm much more of a traditionalist myself and don't prefer firearms in my D&amp;D. However, Paizo had come out with some good firearms rules in <em>Ultimate Combat</em>, and Nick and Lou had come up with nifty supplemental rules as well for <em>Razor Coast</em> that made firearms work pretty well without being gamebreaking. The kicker, though, was that Bill had already published firearms in his game world back in 2005 with<em> F3: Crystal Skull. </em>The city of Penmorgh had a gunsmith (area P34) and the book's artwork even involved firearms in action with one of its iconic characters regularly wielding a musket with axe-blade bayonets. So the genie was out of the bottle, and for me to create the Lost Lands and maintain the integrity of all the prior Necromancer Games books meant there had to be firearms allowed. So in 2013, Razor Coast wasn't that big a deal to me.</p>
<p>However, it did give me a chance to address the issue of how to satisfy both the prior canon and the "Don't get your guns in my game" crowd. You may not have even noticed how I did it; in 2015 we published <em>LL4: Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms</em> that included among other things an update and reprint of <em>Crystal Skull</em>. What I was able to do though, was to write firearms into the world in a controlled fashion and effectively sequester them. So hopefully if you don't like firearms in your game you noticed that you haven't been running into them. That's because for in-world reasons guns have very limited availability and if you stay out of a select few places you probably wouldn't run across them at all. A GM can of course expand and reduce the presence of firearms in his own game as he sees fit, which is exactly how it should be, but I wanted to find that happy medium where they could exist in canon yet wouldn't bug anyone by having to stumble over them all of the time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that other than Razor Coast (an extremely isolated area) and Penmorgh/Oceanus (where the firearms are very unobtrusive) they've only appeared once anywhere else, and I think that was a single reference in <em>Fields of Blood</em> (though I'm just going from memeory here, so don't quote me on that). When you're creating a book that includes the thematic elements of Western plains adventures, you probably need to allow room for the option to have a desperado or too with the gunslinger class. So we threw that into <em>Fields of Blood</em> and called it good on the subject.</p>
<p>But despite my massive digression, this blog post isn't about firearms; it's about integrating books seamlessly into the Lost Lands setting.</p>
<p>The Blight has a more advanced tech than most other areas of the Lost Lands. It could support firearms use, though honestly I haven't run across any yet in my development of it, so it'll probably be more like Penmorgh in that it's there if you want it but the setting doesn't in any way rely on it. The Blight has too many other nasty things to throw at you without anything so blasé as guns. ;-) But the development does require the careful review and integration necessary to make sure it fits with everything else in the world we've published or are intending to publish. As a second aside: The 2006 release of <em>Bard's Gate</em> included a printing press (area TW29). The 2016 release of the updated <em>Bard's Gate</em> still had the printing press (still TW29) but now mentions that it was acquired from the city-state of Castorhage (aka the Blight). Incidentally, Penmorgh has a printer too (area P35), but we won't go there.</p>
<p>So all that it to say that development of a book like <em>The Blight</em> has involved a lot of reading and researching through other FGG and NG books, which brings me (finally) to the subject of this blog post. In correlating the calendars, religions, holidays, etc. of the Blight I've been working with the cosmology information that I've been working up on the Lost Lands for some time. Earlier this week in a prior blog I asked for the help of you super fans to help me recall where I had published some of that information and subsequently lost the information to a harddrive crash a couple years ago. Duke Omote (of way back on the old Necromancer Games messageboards fame) came through like a champ and immediately pointed me to what I was looking for published in <em>LL1: Stoneheart Valley </em>4 years ago (the first "official" Lost Lands title).</p>
<p>This allowed me to use it and the info from The Blight to finish out much of the cosmology of the Lost Lands' solar system that I had begun so long ago. So now, since you've patiently waited through all of my keyboard vomit (I honestly think I must have no self awareness whatsoever when I'm typing [facepalm]), I'm going to post that information to you about the greater state of physcial affairs on the planet Lloegyr and its surrounding celestial bodies. You'll quickly notice that I haven't gotten it entirely complete. I'm still working out some details on the planets and making some decisions if when old NG authors called a race "interstellar" (e.g. the Kuah-Lij, Weedge, Umali, Skree, etc.) do they just mean from another planet or that it has to be from an entirely different star system (the literal meaning of "interstellar" as opposed to just "extraterrestrial" for instance)? So the jury's still out on a little bit of that. But the rest is complete as far as the sun, moons, major stars, constellations, zodiac, etc. Obviously it is still in rough note form at this point, but all of the information is there. So if you're still awake and care at this point, I give you The Cosmology of the Lost Lands!!!!</p>
<p>(Final Note: These lists provide the names/identities of different extraterrestrial bodies as well as the culture that originated its identification as well as, in most cases, the book and page reference that it was drawn from. If it lacks a reference citation then it's either from an unpublished book like The Blight or just exists as original information in my personal notes. It should be noted that this is a humanocentric listing, so it does not include some the stuff from other races stargazing like the elven comet-watching of followers of Railea, for instance. It also doesn't include information on Lance Hawvermale's invention of Moonless Night. Items like those will be included in the campaign setting where the cosmology topic will receive a full discussion; this is just more of a bare-bones list.)</p>
<p><strong>Names the Planet has gone by:</strong></p>
<p>Boros (Hyperborean/Borean; most of known history until Lloegyr) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Eorthe (Heldring) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Erce the Mother (Phoromyceaen) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Geb (Khemit) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Kala (Jaati) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Kophyri (Offworlders mainly) [DMC:80]</p>
<p><strong>Lloegyr/Lost Lands </strong>(current since time of Daan) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Midgard (Northlanders) [SV:4]</p>
<p><strong>The Sun:</strong></p>
<p>Rana [SV:4]</p>
<p><strong>The Moons:</strong></p>
<p>Narrah, Luna [DMC:126], Pale Sister [SV:4]</p>
<p>Sybil, Dark Sister [SV:4]</p>
<p><strong>Planets:</strong></p>
<p>Cyril – the Blue Chariot (see Stars below) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Mulvais – the Red Star (see Stars below) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Xharos – the Black Star (see Stars below) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Lacosta (different solar system, orbiting Oliarus?) [DMC]</p>
<p>Umal, destroyed (same or different solar system?) [H1]</p>
<p>Skreekek (same of different solar system?) [K9]</p>
<p>Others?? [SV:4]</p>
<p><strong>Best-Known Stars:</strong></p>
<p>Aether the Upper Air (Daanite)</p>
<p>Blót Star the Star of Sacrifice (Northlander)</p>
<p>Cyril the Blue Chariot (see Planets above) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Eärendel the Star of the Morning (Northlander/Heldring)</p>
<p>Irminsul the Pillar of the Gods (Northlander/Heldring)</p>
<p>Mulvais the Red Star – (see Planets above) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Oliarus – current Pole Star after polar shift (Hyperborean), brightest star, a winking star; aka Sidhe the Star of the Otherworld (Daanite) [SV:4]</p>
<p>Solaris – aka the Lightstar; old Pole Star (before polar shift) (Khemitite) [L2:25,29]</p>
<p>Xharos the Black Star (see Planets above) – aka Erebos; the Darkstar; the Lower Air (Khemitite, Daanite) [SV:4]</p>
<p><strong>Constellations: (* equals Zodiac House, 13 in all)</strong></p>
<p>*Calade – Hawk of Fate (Foerdewaith), called the Golden Hawk and associated with Arden in Hyperborean and pre-Hyperborean times, now associated with the Tropic of Arden <em>and </em>one of the Houses of the Zodiac.</p>
<p>*Draconis – the Dragon, Xharos/Erebos is its sometimes eye, cradles the old pole star of Solaris</p>
<p>Freya – from Tropic of Freya</p>
<p>*Irminsul – Pillar of the Gods; Irminsul (the star) is at its peak (Northlander/Heldring)</p>
<p>Mithras – from Tropic of Mithras</p>
<p>*Nodens</p>
<p>*Skiðblaðnir – Ship of the Gods (Northlander/Heldring)</p>
<p>*The Host – a vast army, a cross-section view of the galaxy like the Milky Way (universal)</p>
<p>*The Ninefold Lamp – burns for the old gods (Daanite/Ancient Ones)</p>
<p>*The Sickle – (Ashurian) called The Wheel by the followers of Jamboor (for a wheel of insight, aka wheel of inquiry) [BP Player's Guide:8,9,12]]</p>
<p>*The Sphinx – The King of Boros (Hyperborean, Khemitite)</p>
<p>*The Springald – The Crossbow (Foerdewaith) [aka The Hammer (Mjolnr) – Donar’s/Thor’s Hammer (Northlander/Heldring)]; threatens Yales/Jörmungandr</p>
<p>*The Tesseract – cross-shaped, the 3D image of a Tesseract rendered visualized in 2D (universal)</p>
<p>*The White Wolf (Erskaelosi?) [DM1:12]</p>
<p>*Yales – lion-clawed, goat-horned, dragon-scaled devil (Foerdewaith) [aka Jörmungandr the World Serpent (Northlander)]</p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:57:15 +0000Greg A Vaughan6674 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/look-lost-lands-cosmology#commentsA Question For The Uber-Fanshttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/question-uber-fans
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>THHBPTHPBPBPTHBBPTHBBBP</p>
<p>Ew, I was blowing the dust off of my blog keyboard and ended up spitting all over it. Gross. :-(</p>
<p>Anyway, it's been a long while since I sat in this particular chair, and I'm not ready to take up regular occupancy just yet as I am still deep in being Blighted (hope you guys are liking those pdfs as they creep out of production). But I have run across a conundrum and rather than spend endless hours searching I thought I'd ask the vast overmind that is our fans...that are our fans...one of those is right I think.</p>
<p>In between approving layouts for Blight stuff, organizing conversions for Blight stuff, and developing Blight stuff, I'm trying to get my ducks in a row in preparation for the Lost Lands Campaign Setting (The Blight being the last big piece between me and working on it as my primary project). However, I have tinkered on it for so long that I have lost some pieces...or one piece in particular.</p>
<p>At some point in the last 3 years or so I posted or published or blogged or otherwise released a little fluff piece teaser paragraph just kind of giving a general description of the Lost Lands setting from a resident's point of view. It talked about the names the planet has gone by, the number of moons, general stuff like that. However it did contain a few small details that I never recorded anywhere else. I just assumed I would always have that paragraph at hand to look it. Unfortunately now I have lost it. I had a hard drive crash a couple years ago and managed to save almost all of my files, but I think I may have not gotten that one back. (Don't worry, we've gone to Carbonite since then!)</p>
<p>However, I'm pretty sure I had posted it or printed it publicly somewhere beforehand.</p>
<p>So my question(s) to you, good Fans of the Frog:</p>
<p>Do any of you know what I'm talking about?</p>
<p>And if you do, do any of you know where I can find that little blurb?</p>
<p>Greg</p>
</div></div></div>Sat, 04 Feb 2017 00:19:28 +0000Greg A Vaughan6666 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/question-uber-fans#commentsThe 7 Days of Halloween Are Coming...https://www.froggodgames.com/blog/7-days-halloween-are-coming
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Hohohohohoho!...wait, wrong holiday.</p>
<p>Mwahahahahaha! There, that's better.</p>
<p>Stay tuned to FGG for the next few weeks for the terrifying! Spine-tingling! Metastasizing! (wait, what?) "7 Days of Halloween"!!! It'll be an experience that you won't soon forget...</p>
<p>Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!! Dang it! Who broke this remote?</p>
<p>Greg</p>
</div></div></div>Sun, 04 Oct 2015 02:12:11 +0000Greg A Vaughan3149 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/7-days-halloween-are-coming#commentsPosts From Yesteryear (Or Just Earlier This Year....Whatever)https://www.froggodgames.com/blog/posts-yesteryear-or-just-earlier-yearwhatever
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>I happened to stumble across this post I made in January of this year over on the Paizo boards and thought it might make an interesting read for any folks interested in the Lost Lands Campaign Setting design process. I thought it made a nice summation of our efforts. So for anyone who hasn't seen this before...enjoy:</p>
<p><strong>The Lost Lands Campaign Setting</strong></p>
<p>...This is the compilation of ALL of the old Necromancer Games products AND the FGG products into one coherent campaign setting. I've been slowly working on this nonstop for the last 4-1/2 years ever since we formed Frog God. (Okay, let's be honest, just like everyone else I've really been working on this for my home campaign since Necromancer Games started publishing in 2000).</p>
<p>Anyway, it's been a long, slow, tedious process. I love reading our stuff and the old NG stuff, but I've had to read through every single product with a fine tooth comb and a highlighter in hand to mark every single instance of something that affects the campaign world as a whole (yes, I committed the sacrilege of marking up all my old Necro stuff--but hey! it's the "design edition" for the Lost Lands, so that ought to be worth something someday, right?), be it a geographical feature, a nation, the names of nobles or neighboring nobles, population types and densities, particular races, languages, snippets of history, original spells, magic items, feats, religions, technology levels, even types of plants in particular regions. Then I add them all to my big binder full of sheets of notebook paper that hold all these little peeks at the larger world. From these I have to reference and cross reference to create a coherent world map that encompasses all of the previous products plus review and account for all new products to create this giant picture to hold all of the older smaller pictures.</p>
<p>My goal with the campaign setting is to allow people to use their old NG stuff without having to change anything for them to set them in the Lost Lands while staying true to the intent of the original authors. If you've got the original adventures, you shouldn't HAVE to buy the updated versions to be able to use them in the Lost Lands.</p>
<p>NG put out something like 80 products, mostly by all different authors, with very little to hold it all together beyond the First Edition Feel philosophy and some individual attempts as interpreting and connecting some of the iconic areas (Bard's Gate, Rappan Athuk, Barakus) while giving tantalizing but uncoordinated hints about other places (Reme, Tsar, Tircople) without ever providing any real detail. These were all considered to be plug-and-play for dropping into the GM's own campaign, so there was very little if any organizational oversight of how they were all developed. You can still use our stuff as plug-and-play for your own campaign, but the setting will give you the option of using ours if you want to.</p>
<p>Some things I learned during this process: <br />
1. Orcus is everywhere (no really, he's everywhere). I like Orcus. He is cool. He is iconic. He is representative of Necromancer Games. And he will continue to enjoy that status with Frog God Games. But, seriously, he's everywhere. <br />
2. Where Orcus isn't, there Tsathogga will be (and sometimes even where Orcus is--I'm looking at you Tomb of Abysthor). It's almost like the founders of Necromancer Games personally identified with Orcus and Tsathogga or something. I don't know; I don't really get it. Anyway, fortunately we at Frog God Games have no such strange predilections. :-P <br />
3. Almost every adventure takes place on the frontier, somewhere at the very edge of civilization. But hardly any actually take place in or describe this alleged civilization. I get it, <em>The Keep on the Borderlands</em> and all that. The edge of civilization is a great place to put the action. But for there to be all this frontier there has to be a civilization somewhere that's encroaching in all this wilderness. To make a complete campaign setting, you really need to have this alleged civilization. So either, all of these adventure-laden frontier areas are within like 5 miles of each other (one seriously bada$$ place to roll for random encounters) or the campaign setting is HUGE with lots of areas for frontiers to exist and lots of civilizations, ex-civilizations, and quasi-civilizations that have encroached upon the wilds enough to create these myriad frontiers and also enough wild places left over for them to be frontiers of. We opted for the latter, so the Lost Lands is a really big place with all the attendant issues and details that accompany that (hint, these don't speed up the development process). <br />
4. There...are...a...ton...of...gods. I think every author created a half-dozen gods, or something like that. Sometimes a fully fleshed-out pantheon and stat block and sometimes just an throwaway reference. (Yes, this is an idol to another forgotten god...no not that forgotten god, another one). Don't get me wrong. I love this hodge-podge of crazy unassociated deities that have been thrown into the mix over the past 15 years. They give the campaign world a real sense of depth and age, but man, they've got to all be catalogued, given descriptions (if they haven't already), placed in some kind of pantheonistic context (or determined to be outside such a context), and have enough diverse cultures, epochs, and landmass to justify these apparently super-religious folk. This leads me to a small request for current and future FGG writers...NO MORE GODS! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF THESE SELFSAME OVERABUNDANT DEITIES, NO MAS!!!! That's not entirely true. MY spreadsheet is sitting at somewhere over 250 unique divine powers introduced in NG and FGG products. For the most part we're good on the number we have, but there are actually a few pantheonistic holes to fill. WE'll figure out how we want to fill these remaining few slots, and it'll be cool. But that's going to be a seriously huge chapter with even only short write-ups for these deities. <br />
5. If you like evil cults, the Lost Lands is the place for you. There's other stuff for PCs to kick the crap out of, but there are definitely plenty of evil cults to sharpen your swords on. This is not a negative in my opinion, it is just a fact. Our Q1 book (the now-released<em> Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms</em>) is basically all about a number of these evil cults, why the exist, how they operate, and putting them in context with each other. I like evil cults, nuff said. <br />
6. There are all kinds of craziness going on here in the way of campaign styles. Just think: Rappan Athuk, Khemit (from Gary's Necropolis), Bard's Gate, Hawkmoon, Razor Coast, the Northlands, The Blight, and all the others all have to fit and have to make sense as well in their own context without breaking, denaturing, or intruding on any of the others. Heck, at Green Ronin's request we even wrote a sidebar in Razor Coast detailing how Freeport could be placed in the setting. This is no one-flavor campaign setting, I tell you.</p>
<p>Okay, so you get the idea. This process has been going on behind the scenes for several years and, surprisingly, I have been able to assemble this Frankenstein's Daddy with very little change to the source material. There are a few instances where a directional descriptor had to be changed (different authors just sort of made up their own version of the world's geography), but these are actually surprisingly few and unobtrusive. Some of my favorites actually stem from when this was Bill's home campaign world in high school and college, and Rappan Athuk and Sword of Air were adventures that he wrote for his own players. His personal campaign maps were 2 parts Middle-Earth, 6 parts Wilderlands, and 5 parts I don't give a crap just roll for initiative. He was running adventures, not world building! So you get things like Rappan Athuk being on the east coast of the continent as published by NG way back at the beginning of this century and then a throwaway reference to the Amazon Village in Sword of Air (that I didn't catch DADGUMMIT!!!!) that states it's just a few miles east of Rappan Athuk. Apparently it was supposed to be a floating village or something (not really). Anyway, if you bought SoA you'll get that amusing little non sequitur to laugh at. :-/ (Don't worry, the SoA maps and adventure geography totally work, I just failed to catch that single reference in my canon review of the manuscript so you'll just have to ignore it...or consider it an Easter Egg, yeah, that's it, an Easter Egg!)</p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 11 Sep 2015 05:13:39 +0000Greg A Vaughan3139 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/posts-yesteryear-or-just-earlier-yearwhatever#commentsOffer for the Backers of the CSM Kickstartershttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/offer-backers-csm-kickstarters
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Hi guys, we have just released the following announcement in regards to all of the people who lost money when the CSD Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters failed to deliver. I figured I'd post it here for anyone who didn't see it elsewhere. If you know of someone who was affected by that situation, please forward them this information. We've only got a 6 month window on this, and I don't want someone to see it for the first time in 6 months and a week and get left out. Thanks!</p>
<p>Greg</p>
<p>And without further ado...</p>
<p>Frog God Games is well aware of the disappointment, frustration, and monetary loss suffered by backers of the two <strong>Centre Stage Miniatures Kickstarters, Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors Complete II</strong>, for which we had licensed monster images to CSM. Lots of our most loyal fans bought miniatures because they have our monster books and wanted miniatures for monsters from those books. When those Kickstarters did not deliver their products we watched in dismay as backers were left with nothing to show for their support of the Kickstarter campaigns. While Frog God Games did not run the Kickstarters, have control of the manufacture or delivery of its products, nor have any affiliation with Centre Stage Miniatures beyond the licensing of our art properties for the purposes of the Kickstarters, they did involve our licensed materials, and we did publicly support the Kickstarter campaigns. Since that time we have been looking for a way to lessen the blow suffered by the backers of the campaigns in a show of good will to our fans and those who might have supported the campaigns because they saw our name associated with it.</p>
<p>In recent dialogue on public forums with some of the backers of these Kickstarters, it was suggested to us that maybe we could offer free pdfs from our own product catalogue to backers of those Kickstarters so they could at least have something to show for their support. This was something we had considered doing at the time when the Kickstarters first seemed to have failed in their promised delivery of miniatures. At the time we thought an offer like that might be seen as adding insult to injury for trying to somehow diminish the severity of the loss suffered by the backers or otherwise wholly inadequate and inappropriate for the occasion. However, from our recent discussions with backers, we have learned that some would be receptive to such an offer as way to at least ease their frustration.</p>
<p>We’ve spent the last few days talking about the logistics of how to do this because we’re a company of part-time gamers, not very automated, and lots of backers are involved here. Unquestionably there are going to be a lot of glitches and delays as we get a handle on the process. There’s also got to be an absolute time limit on this program to not only limit the consumption of our already-limited technical resources but also to protect us from a potentially years-long process of receiving, processing, verifying, and tracking these orders—a task of no small measure for our technical limitations.</p>
<p>As a result of this process, for the next <strong>6 months</strong> Frog God Games is opening the pdf catalogue of our online store at <strong>froggodgames.com</strong> and will give store credit for <strong>pdf purchases</strong> to match <strong>dollar-for-dollar</strong> the amount that a backer paid to the <strong>Tome of Horrors Complete and/or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters </strong>from Centre Stage Miniatures. Obviously there are some difficult logistics involved in this both to verify backers for the issuance of the credit and to handle the resulting online transactions. To try and create a smooth process and save the sanity of our web master and keep him from being overrun with countless details to keep track of, we will initiate the following processes:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> If you were a backer of either the Tome of Horrors Complete or Tome of Horrors Complete II Kickstarters from Centre Stage Miniatures, please send an email to Chris at <a href="mailto:froggodgamesfreepdf@gmail.com">froggodgamesfreepdf@gmail.com</a>. In the <strong>subject line</strong> of your email <strong>include the name under which you pledged to either or both Kickstarters, indicate whether it was one or both Kickstarters,</strong> and include <strong>the total amount you pledged to both of them combined</strong> (Example subject line: Joe Backer, TOH and TOH2, $375). Include in the body of the email any screenshots, emails, or other documentation you have to show your support as a backer and the amount of the Kickstarter pledges that you made. (We’re not looking for some kind of legal standard of evidence here; we just need to be able to see that you were in fact a supporter of the Kickstarters and for what amount to help us sift out any unscrupulous opportunists who were otherwise unassociated with these Kickstarters and just see this as an opportunity to take advantage of our offer for free products.)</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> Chris has prepared <strong>coupons to the froggodgames.com web store</strong> in increments of $25, $50, $100, $150, $200, $250, $300, $350, $400, $450, $500, $600, $700, $800, $900, and $1,000. He will respond to your email with one of these web store coupons in the <strong>full amount of your documented pledges, rounded up to the nearest coupon increment</strong>. For example, if you pledged $200 between the two Kickstarters, you will receive a froggodgames.com coupon in the amount of $200. However, if your pledges total $201 you will receive coupons totaling $250, so Chris will not have to worry about creating hundreds of different coupons unique to individual backers. As a small game company, that sort of thing is frankly beyond the capacity of our personnel and online resources to handle. (<strong>Please note</strong> that <strong>if your pledge total was in excess of $1,000</strong>, Chris will issue multiple coupons in increments to get you closest to your pledge rounded up.)</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> In addition to the above offer, we are aware that due to hard drive crashes, loss of email accounts, and various and sundry other reasons all backers may not have documentation of their backing of the Tome of Horrors Kickstarters or may not be able to show the amount by which they backed one or both of the Kickstarters. To reasonably account for this we make this additional offer. If you cannot show us documentation of your support of one or both of the Kickstarters, send us an email at the above address and <strong>in the subject line state your name, the name of the Kickstarter(s) you backed, and write “No Documentation”</strong> (Example subject line: Joe Computercrash, TOH and TOH2, No Documentation). There is no need to include any information in the body of the email. In these cases we will take your word for it and will issue a coupon to you in the amount of <strong>$25</strong>. We apologize for being unable to honor higher dollar values in these instances, as we will already be opening ourselves to considerable exposure to illegitimate claimants, however we will honor emails sent to us in this manner, no questions asked. Please be advised, though, we will not issue more than one of these coupons to a single individual.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> <strong>Please be sure that the email account through which you have sent these emails is one that Chris can reply to with the attached coupons</strong> and will not be sent to a spam folder or otherwise lost. This process is already going to be putting a great deal of stress on a part-time employee, and we are not going to be able to spend additional resources in tracking down email errors and hiccups, so please help us to get these right on the first try.</p>
<p><strong>Important Note 1:</strong> This offer has an absolute time limit of 6 months. After March 1, 2016, Frog God Games will no longer honor any claims for backers seeking to receive coupons. Emails from backers received on or prior to March 1, 2016 will be honored even if we are not able to issue the coupons until after that date due to any backlog in processing. Coupons issued under this offer do not expire on March 1, 2016 and will be good until their normal expiration date of September 1, 2016.</p>
<p><strong>Important Note 2:</strong> Please note that the store credit coupons are for pdf purchases only. They will not work for the purchase of physical product or in combination with purchase of such products. If you wish to purchase physical products, you will need to do so as a separate transaction so that our fulfillment process will not get messed up. Thank you for your cooperation in this.</p>
<p><strong>Important Note 3:</strong> This doesn’t affect any of the above but is intended as an FYI to anyone that is intending to buy a physical product as well. All purchases of a Frog God Games physical book include the pdf of that book for free as well, so don’t use your coupons to buy the pdf of a book that you were already going to buy the physical copy of anyway.</p>
<p><strong>Disclaimer</strong> (because we legally have make sure this stuff is clearly stated)<strong>:</strong> Frog God Games is not affiliated with Centre Stage Miniatures or any of its principles and is not serving in any agency capacity for these entities. This offer of free pdfs is not considered or intended as a release of any claims or rights enjoyed by the backers in relation to the above-mentioned Kickstarters, and the claim or use of these pdf coupons is not intended to be considered as binding to the recipient for any legal purposes. Furthermore, in creating this pdf-coupon redemption offer Frog God Games is not making any statement or claim in regards to the Kickstarters, their outcomes, their hosts, their backers, or any pending claims or legal matters in regards to the Kickstarters or related entities.</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 26 Aug 2015 23:03:45 +0000Greg A Vaughan3128 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/offer-backers-csm-kickstarters#commentsUnofficial Golarion Deity Conversionshttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/unofficial-golarion-deity-conversions
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>I have been asked many times whom I would swap for whom if I was running a Lost Lands adventure set in Paizo's Golarion campaign world. I've always run Lost Lands stuff "as is" so it had never come up for me to sit down to look and see how I would do it. Also with our Lost Lands pantheons of deities in constant flux as I add, edit, and rearrange based on the many prior Necromancer Games and Frog God Games products, the project just always seemed too daunting. However, I believe the Lost Lands pantheons are probably 90% or more finalized at this point. Pretty much all the common deities are done from the Hyperborean and Foerdewaith pantheons, the non-human deities are for the most part done, and I've even reached back into prehistoric cultures to build founding pantheons. Really the only <em>big</em> thing left is finalizing our pantheon for the Old Way (that is, the early Celtic-style pantheon of the Ancient Ones who once inhabited Akados). Other than that there's still some work to be done on exotic pantheons of distant Libynos and some Asian-flavored pantheons of the Xi'en Hegemony, but those won't have much effect for just the core Golarion deities for the most part.</p>
<p>So as the final days of my summer wane and I've managed to get through most of the projects I had on my plate to finish before August, I decided to sit down and work out the conversions I would do if I was to run Slumbering Tsar or something, set in Golarion. Of course, this is all highly unofficial. The Golarion deities are the intellectual property of Paizo, Inc., and we at Frog God Games have no rights or access to them, so this is really nothing more than a theoretical exercise that will hopefully be of use to some gamers who would like to use this kind of crossover in their home games but don't have access to the complete (or at least 90% complete) roll of Lost Lands gods. This is for those guys (and in no way constitutes a challenge to Paizo's ownership and use of the Golarion deities). Some Paizo gods have multiple varied aspects that I'd divide between different Lost Lands gods--for instance Calistria is the main goddess of elves, plus a goddess of revenge, plus a goddess of sensuality/lust. So I'd apply 3 different Lost Lands deities to that and convert all references to Darach-Albith, Moccavallo, and Bast to Calistria in such a game. The same kind of thing applies to Norgorber who literally has four different cults.</p>
<p>Special thanks to Frog God Games writer and Pathfinder converter <strong>Jeff Swank </strong>for motivating me to sit down and make this list. For the record, he worked on Quests of Doom as a Pathfinder converter and did not get credited (for which I am both highly embarrassed and deeply sorry), so I wanted to give him a shout out. He's also written couple of our new line of Lost Lore pdfs, so check those out when you get a chance for some cheap, bite-sized, but cool bits of Lost Lands crunch.</p>
<p>So without further ado, here's how I would make the swaps for my own game if I was to run Lost Lands adventures in Golarion:</p>
<p>Abadar = Thyr (order, justice)/Sefagreth (business, banking)<br />
Asmodeus = Hecate (magic)/Asmodeus (rulership of Hell)<br />
Calistria = Darach-Albith (elves)/Moccavallo (trickery, revenge)/Bast (sensuality, lust)<br />
Cayden Cailean = Pekko (also Snorri Horrnison for dwarves of Clan Targ)<br />
Desna = Tykee<br />
Erastil = Freya<br />
Gorum = Bowbe (Gromm the Thunderer would also fit pretty well)<br />
Gozreh = Telophus (nature, weather, seasons)/Quell (the seas)<br />
Iomedae = Muir<br />
Irori = Belon the Wise (loses the martial aspect but keeps the traveler and mysterious foreign traveler bits)<br />
Lamashtu = Tiamat (the Primeval Mother really fits the role of Lamashtu)<br />
Nethys = Jamboor (mysterious spooky magic with just a hint of death thrown in for flavor)<br />
Norgorber: Blackfingers = Set/Father Skinsaw = Orcus/The Gray Master = Mirkeer/The Reaper of Reputation = Grox<br />
Pharasma = Da-Jin<br />
Rovagug = Dajobas<br />
Sarenrae = Mitra<br />
Shelyn = Zadastha<br />
Torag = Dwerfater<br />
Urgathoa = Hel<br />
Zon-Kuthon = Demogorgon (not just the traditional demon lord aspect owned by WotC - see Mountains of Madness to see the cool stuff we're doing with ol' Two-Heads)<br />
Achaekek = Rachiss<br />
Gogunta = Tsathogga<br />
Razmir = Nergal (particularly his dominance over the mysterious Huun Imperium to be explored in future Lost Lands products)<br />
Aroden = Arden</p>
<p>That covers all the major Golarion gods (of Avistan, at least) and some of the important minor gods. If there are any other obscure or minor gods that you'd like to see an unofficial Lost Lands take on, post it in the comments and I'll check on it occasionally to see what's what and if I can come up with a good substitute.</p>
<p>Greg</p>
</div></div></div>Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:38:13 +0000Greg A Vaughan3111 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/unofficial-golarion-deity-conversions#commentsLost Lands Techhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/lost-lands-tech
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The Lost Lands relative tech levels are divided among the following:</p>
<p>Stone Age <br />
Bronze Age <br />
Iron Age <br />
Dark Ages <br />
High Middle Ages <br />
Medieval <br />
Renaissance <br />
Age of Sail <br />
Industrial Revolution</p>
<p>Starting with Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms (currently at the printer), each book that reveals gazetteer-type information about the Lost Lands will include at the beginning a list of the tech levels and a description of what each one means to the game world. Plus each region listing throughout the book will include a line that gives the tech levels.</p>
<p>In general the Lost Lands runs around a High Middle Ages - Medieval tech level, trending more towards Medieval in the cities and HMA in the countryside. The greatest cities are sometimes Renaissance. Some specific areas (Razor Coast, Oceanus, and Southvale to name a few) are Age of Sail. The Blight (the City-State of Castorhage) is more or less the only major area of Industrial Revolution tech, but as you'll see, it's a tech more driven on magic than anything else. Sort of a steampunk without the steam and with necromancy instead.</p>
<p>The relative tech levels are maintained primarily by the level of isolation of an area and general need.</p>
<p>Only the most isolated and backward areas would have a Stone Age or Bronze Age tech level. Exceptions would be: <br />
Large parts of Libynos, where the vast quantities of cheap slave labor, extremely strong dynastic rule, and a desire of the powers that be to prevent equipping the peasantry with the means to effectively revolt keeps things at a Bronze Age level (think Khemit). That is not to say that no tech above BA exists in Khemit, just that the rulers keep a lid on trade in that stuff to the degree that unless someone has a great deal of money, they're not going to be able to easily acquire stuff of a higher level. The powerful elite would have access to a higher tech level, and adventurers conceivably could with their usual abundance of loot, but the average Joe on the street is basically stuck with BA tech. </p>
<p>And a few anachronistic specific areas that keep it at that level for their own idiosyncratic reasons, like the city of Freegate. Freegate is one of the major ports controlled by Bard's Gate but is so strongly steeped in its ancient Hyperborean roots basically maintains a BA tech level in their day-to-day existence. They've got all kinds of higher tech coming through to and from Bard's Gate (which is Medieval, borderline Renaissance), but they have simply chosen to not embrace it--something they have the luxury to do as a protectorate of Bard's Gate. Since Bard's Gate will handle any major military or trade-related problems they might face, the aristocracy of Freegate just kicks back in their togas and debates philosophy at the Forums while the coin rolls in. Visitors to Freegate are almost always of a higher tech level, but (as with the Libynos example above) the tech level indicates the most prevalent tech level, not the tech level available for those with coin enough to buy it or who may be traveling through.</p>
<p>Dark Ages is most frequently seen in not necessarily isolated areas, but areas that are on the fringe of known civilization. Higher tech levels are available but are generally expensive and the folk get along just fine without them for the most part. There is some tech-level creep, but when magic is readily available to take care of a lot of the problems tech was designed for then it reduces a lot of the drive to develop/adopt it. If necessity is the mother of invention, then cheap and plentiful magic is frequently guilty of matricide. Examples of typical Dark Ages tech would be the Northlands, the Heldring Peninsula, the island of Ynys Cymragh.</p>
<p>High Middle Ages tech is pretty much the default for most of the known civilized lands. The typical country village or small city is likely to be HMA/</p>
<p>Medieval is the highest "normal" tech levels. Most of the more powerful and/or affluent cities are going to be here, with the tech level descending more towards HMA in the hinterlands as you get farther away from the population centers.</p>
<p>Renaissance are the truly outstanding cities of the world. No nation is entirely renaissance. This represents the pinnacle for <em>most</em> technological achievement in the Lost Lands. Bard's Gate probably bounces right at the cusp between this and Medieval, but could probably properly be called Renaissance (I'll make a final decision when the new Bard's Gate manuscript arrives from Casey Cristofferson and I can see what he added on top of the old stuff). Other than Bard's Gate, the most likely places to find Ren tech is in Courghais, the imperial capital of the Kingdoms of Foere (though Medi and HMA throughout the kingdoms themselves), a few of its more affluent sister cities, Reme, some of the colony/conquered cities Oceanus like Oestre on the Matagost Peninsula), and maybe Alcaldar (still deciding on that one).</p>
<p>Age of Sail is really only found in nations that principally rely on their naval capabilities to project their power. The Empire of Oceanus is the greatest example of this and it and its colonies explain the perfusion of its tech in remote areas such as the waters and shores around the Razor Sea. There the availability of spellcasters is probably a bit more limited, plus Oceanus's tech is fairly common, <em>plus</em> Oceanus stands to gain a lot of trade by pushing their tech on these outlying areas that have no real hope of ever contesting with Oceanus but will gladly pay hard coin for the tech that they offer, which as a result is probably a lot cheaper than it might be found in other places. The Kingdoms of Foere (easily Oceanus's biggest political rival) would likely be at this level except it's largely become a land-locked empire in the last few centuries since its major naval defeat by Oceanus at Kapichi Point and has, therefore, not had the need to develop this tech. The Foerdewaith remain the major dominant power on the Akados mainland (and to a certain extent in Libynos as well, as seen in the Great Crusades of previous years) and with its tenuous peace with Oceanus chooses not to engage in a maritime arms race. Oceanus knows it can't beat Foere on the mainland, and Foere knows better than to invest in defeating Oceanus at sea. So a status quo exists that does a lot to prevent the proliferation of Age of Sail tech throughout the mainland. Plus Foere has the largest population in Akados and like a gazillion spellcasters, so the need doesn't seem pressing.</p>
<p>Industrial Revolution tech basically wouldn't exist without the City-State of Castorhage (The Blight) and essentially doesn't exist outside its local and colonial bounds. The only nation that could truly contest with Oceanus at sea (though no doubt at great cost), the two maritime powers basically steer clear of each other's assets to avoid any costly entanglements. And, as mentioned, Castorhage is Industrial Revolution in effect only, in that its tech emulates Industrial Revolution norms but relies more on necromancy and other magic to make that happen. The Blight is kind of a weird place. To get a feel for its tech (and weirdness), read Richard Pett's masterful novel: <em>Crooked</em> available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Richard-Pett/dp/1940372011" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. It is not a Frog God Games product, but our agreement with Richard to make sure he never gets "Styed" again (if you're familiar with those events of the late days of Dungeon Magazine) lets him keep using his Blight IP while FGG creates Lost Lands game products out of it. Rich's novel takes place in the city of "Brine", but you'll easily see that it is basically The Blight in novel form.</p>
<p>We've essentially designed the Lost Lands to be able to seamlessly incorporate all of the old Necromancer Games adventures (Crystal Skull, updated in <a href="https://www.froggodgames.com/cults-sundered-kingdoms" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms</a> included firearms) as well as new Frog God Games classics like Nick Logue's Razor Coast <a href="https://www.froggodgames.com/razor-coast-0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a> and allow those kinds of play but not force GMs and players who want to play in a different kind of game that doesn't involve firearms and other higher levels of tech. It'll even allow low tech play in Khemit, etc. for those who want it, all without forcing components on them that they don't want to use. A GM can include or ignore Razor Coast in his campaign, include or ignore the fact that the Imperial Guard of Oceanus includes a battalion musketeers, include or ignore the fact that there may be gunslingers wandering around the countryside. Other than those places where they have been specifically called out, firearms and tech will not play an important role in FGG books and adventures and left up to individual GMs to insert if they wish. And if you think the temptation of a firing line of muskets would be too much for any government to resist fielding, then you haven't seen what a few well-placed <em>fireballs</em> can do to a line of stationary guys carrying horns full or blackpowder or what a <em>wildfyre</em> cannon can do against a wooden ship with a magazine full of powder and shot. ;-)</p>
</div></div></div>Sun, 12 Jul 2015 20:01:21 +0000Greg A Vaughan3091 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/lost-lands-tech#commentsThe Lost Lands Calendarhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/lost-lands-calendar
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>I already gave a little bit of info on this in my previous blog post in regards to lenght of months, weeks, years, etc. But I'll include that info here again to start things off and then supplement if with new material that has been worked up. Again, this is all still in relatively crude/my personal notes form, so it'll be cleaned up before publication int he campaign setting. It also still ahs some blanks to be filled between now and then, so there are definitely more pieces of the puzzle that haven't yet been realized.</p>
<p><strong>Measurements of Time</strong></p>
<p>1 Day = 24 hours as subdivided by the concept of the Tesseract’s 24 faces. Some cultures divide days into units based on the 8 cells or 16 vertices, but these are not present in the mainstream timekeeping of the Lost Lands which sticks to the 24 faces representing 24 1-hour increments.</p>
<p>1 Week = 7 days, there are no weekends vs. weekdays</p>
<p>1 Fortnight = 2 weeks + a festival day between, i.e. 15 days (literally 14 nights/15 days)</p>
<p>1 Month = 30 days, 4 7-day weeks with 2 festival days, no weekends/sabbath (7-1-7-7-1-7) = 30 days, so it basically works out that there is a festival day every two weeks (…7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7…), though 4 High Holy Days throughout the year placed on the equinoxes and solstices break that pattern up to some extent.</p>
<p>2 Fortnights is considered a month even though 2 “true” fortnights would technically only be 29 days when counting nights specifically (28 nights/29 days), but the night of the final day before a new month is understood to be included as well for ease of using 2 fortnights to describe a 1-month period (29 nights/30 days). High Holy Days are not considered in calculation of fortnights.</p>
<p>1 Year = 12 months + 4 High Holy Days = 364 days</p>
<p>Every month has special days called out, in particular Calends (the first day of the month) and Ides (this means the middle of the month, which would be the night between the 15th and 16th days. It is traditionally held to be the day leading up to that night, so when Ides is mentioned it means the 15th day (i.e. the last day of the month's first fortnight). Each Calends and Ides is considered sacred to one or more deities. I don't have all of them worked out yet, so there are some entries that just say XX right now, but they'll be filled in later.</p>
<p>The Ancient Hyperboreans had extremely efficient but very boring names for each month (e.g. Firstmonth, Secondmonth, and so on). This held true for most of the duration of that empire's dominance over Akados, however, with its decline and ultimate demise the months were renamed in a piecemeal fashion by the folk. These renamings show mainly Hyperborean and Foerdewaith (the empire that followed Hyperborea and remains extant though in a much-reduced capacity) influence but with a strong admixture of Heldring and local folksy influences. These have gone through many permutations in the last millennia or so, and this is what they have ultimately arrived at in the current day. Most humans cultures of Akados conform to the Common Calendar as well as the PC races. Insular enclaves of dwarves and elves use their own names (not convered here), but in their dealings with the numerically dominant humans that make use of the Common Calendar as well. As mentioned, each of the 12 months has 30 days (i.e. 2 fortnights or 4 weeks and 2 festival days depending on how you want to look at it).</p>
<p><strong>Common Name Hyperborean Name Real-World Approximation</strong></p>
<p>Oeros Firstmonth January</p>
<p>Foeros Secondmonth February</p>
<p>Freyrmond Thirdmonth March</p>
<p>Eostre Fourthmonth April</p>
<p>Tiwemond Fifthmonth May</p>
<p>Daan Sixthmonth June</p>
<p>Haymond Seventhmonth July</p>
<p>Hummidos Eighthmonth August</p>
<p>Mithrond Ninthmonth September</p>
<p>Blótmond Tenthmonth October</p>
<p>Winterfyll Eleventhmonth November</p>
<p>Yule Twelfthmonth December</p>
<p>It should be noted that one of the biggest Heldring influences on the calendar is the ending of the month with the letter "d" as in "mond". This is a holdover from their use of the letter "eth" (written as "ð" which they pronounced with a "th" sound, but most speakers don't realize this and just use the "d" sound when they say it making Haymonth into Haymond in the common usage. The "os" endings reflect the older Hyperborean naming traditions (not of months but just in general, like Akados, etc.) even when applied to a specifically Foerdewaith name like "Foeros". When the Foerdewaith changed Secondmonth to Foeros early in their empire, they were specifically trying to be imitative of the Hyperborean style as had been previously used in renaming Firstmonth "Oeros" after the first Hyperborean emperor, Oerson, (which was done rather late in the Hyperborean Empire actually, as they tried to draw upon their oldest roots and legitimize the current dynasty at the time).</p>
<p>In addition to the 12 30-day months, the yearly calendar includes 4 High Holy Days that are somewhat mobile. Only the fourth one, Midwinter, is always set to occur on the day after the last day of Yule. Since these four are based on solstices and equinoxes, they vary somewhat from year to year. Together these make a 364-day calendar. The exact dates of the other 3 High Holy Days are determined by the Order of Corollaries at the Reliquary of Jamboor in the Rampart Mountains (see the forthcoming <strong><em>The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces</em></strong>). The process is very difficult and somewhat confusing because other than Midwinter (that always falls between Yule and Oeros), the other High Holy Days can fall at different times either between months or at random times during months. This is just an accepted part of society in the Lost Lands among the common folk and nobility alike, the knowledge that a High Holy Day might plop down in the middle of any given week. Since the High Holy Days are their own full days, then the week just resumes normally on the day following the HHD. Most people only have a vague notion of when the HHDs will be for the year until the Reliquary of Jamboor publishes the information by herald in all the major cities on Saining (see below) each year. However, truly isolated communities who don't receive that information regularly may just make their best guess as to the actual dates of the HHDs and celebrate accordingly.</p>
<p>The four High Holy Days are:</p>
<p>Winter Solstice: Called Midwinter. The day following Midwinter is Calends of Oeros and is the first day of the new year, called Saining.</p>
<p>Vernal Equinox: Called the Cusp of Freya, it signals the midpoint of Spring.</p>
<p>Summer Solstice: Called Midsummer.</p>
<p>Autumnal Equinox: Called the Cusp of Mithras,it signals the midpoint of Autumn.</p>
<p>The High Holy Days are pretty universal among the various religions and are recognized in the civic calendar as holidays. However, the actual days that mark the beginning/ending of seasons are also considered to be important and are frequently celebrated by different religions and even different communities on a local basis. These four Days of the Seasons are as follows:</p>
<p>Imbolg: first day of Spring</p>
<p>Beltane: first day of Summer</p>
<p>Lammastide: first day of Autumn</p>
<p>Day of the Dead: first day of winter</p>
<p>Each of the High Holy Days and to a lesser extent the Seasonal Days has a whole host of holidays that are celebrated on them and around them in different ways by different religions. Some of the names of these are more traditionally known (such as Samhain, the last day of Autumn occuring the day before Day of the Dead) but not necessarily celebrated (Samhain is mainly only kept religiously by the witches that follow Hecate or Cybele, others just have seaonal festivals to mark the end of Autumn). In addition there are a number of other holidays celebrated by various religious groups that may have some level of universal recognition.</p>
<p>Below is a breakdown of the yearly calendar with explanations of the month names and the holidays/festivals that generally fall within each month:</p>
<p><strong>1. Oeros (Month of Oerson):</strong></p>
<p>Named for Oerson, first polemarch of Hyperborea</p>
<p>Saining (New Year) is first day of Oeros</p>
<p>Calends – The Whiskey Man (formerly also Father Poga), Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>The Feast of Fools is on the 6th day of Oeros</p>
<p>The Gnomish Grand Masquerade is on the 6th day of Oeros</p>
<p>Orenday (first full moon after Midwinter) is in Oeros</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>2. Foeros (Month of Foere):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the Empire of Foere after its founding by Macobert</p>
<p>Calends – Brigid, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Imbolg (first day of spring) is in Foeros, midway between the winter solstice and vernal equinox</p>
<p>First thaw usually occurs in Foeros</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>3. Freyrmond (Month of Freya):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the goddess Freya in honor of the coming of Spring</p>
<p>Calends – Freya, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Cusp of Freya (vernal equinox) falls near the end of Freyrmond</p>
<p>Planting usually takes place in Freyrmond</p>
<p>Spring migrations usually begin in Freyrmond</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>4. Eostre (Month of Eostre):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the goddess Eostre (Muir)</p>
<p>Calends – Muir, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Eostre is considered sacred to the Cult of Belphegor, and the archdevil is strongest in this month</p>
<p>Lover’s Day (first bloom of spring) usually occurs in Eostre</p>
<p>The first grape harvest occurs in early Eostre</p>
<p>Spring flood season is in Eostre</p>
<p>Akitu-festival – Ashurian sowing festival occurs in late Eostre</p>
<p>Summer Blót falls in Eostre, four weeks after the Cusp of Freya</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>5. Tiwemond (Month of Tyr):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the god Tyr (Thyr)</p>
<p>Calends – Thyr, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Summer Ides – Darach-Albith</p>
<p>Beltane (first day of summer) is in Tiwemond, midway between the vernal equinox and summer solstice</p>
<p>Walpurgis Night is the last night of Tiwemond</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>6. Daan (Month of Daan):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the ancient hero Daan after overthrowing the corrupt Hyperborean Empire</p>
<p>Calends – Thursis, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Summer Ides – Darach-Albith</p>
<p>Midsummer (summer solstice) falls near the end of Daan</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>7. Haymond (Haymaking Month):</strong></p>
<p>Calends – Demogorgon, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Summer Ides – Darach-Albith</p>
<p>Accounds is on Calends of Haymond once every 5 years</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>8. Hummidos (Month of Hummaemidon):</strong></p>
<p>Named in celebration of the Battle of Hummaemidon in 1 I.R.</p>
<p>High elves and humans hold this month in special esteem; dwarves (especially mountain dwarves) refuse to acknowledge the common name of this month and will only refer to it as Eighthmonth (or XXX among mountains dwarves)</p>
<p>Calends – XX, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Crafts festivals occur in Hummidos</p>
<p>Lammastide (first day of autumn) is in Hummidos, midway between the summer solstice and autumnal equinox</p>
<p>Harvest Festival (Lammastide)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>9. Mithrond (Month of War):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the god Mithras for the final months for military campaigns each year</p>
<p>Calends – Mithras, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Cusp of Mithras (autumnal equinox) falls near the end of Mithrond</p>
<p>Harvest Moon feast occurs either in mid-late Mithrond or early-mid Blótmond</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>10. Blótmond</strong> <strong>(Month of Sacrifices):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the autumn sacrifices (blóts) of the Heldring</p>
<p>Calends – Odin, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Brewers’ Fest takes place in the first week of Blótmond</p>
<p>Harvest Moon feast occurs either in mid-late Mithrond or early-mid Blótmond</p>
<p>The second grape harvest occurs in late Blótmond</p>
<p>Fall flood season is in Blótmond</p>
<p>The Hunter’s Moon occurs either in mid-late Blótmond or early-mid Winterfyll</p>
<p>Autumn Blót occurs four weeks after the Cusp of Mithras</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>11: Winterfyll</strong> <strong>(First full moon of Winter):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the month that usually has the first full moon of winter</p>
<p>Calends – XX, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – Orcus</p>
<p>Álfablót occurs in early Winterfyll</p>
<p>The Hunter’s Moon occurs either in mid-late Blótmond or early-mid Winterfyll</p>
<p>First frost usually occurs in Winterfyll</p>
<p>Samhain (last night of autumn)</p>
<p>Day of the Dead (first day of winter) is in Winterfyll, midway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice</p>
<p>Winter Nights (first three nights of winter)</p>
<p>Winter Night Blót, Dísablót (first night of winter)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>12. Yule (The Feast Month):</strong></p>
<p>Named for the month of feasts celebrating the Yule season culminating at Yuletide and Hogmanay</p>
<p>Calends – XX, Rialae-Aibaru</p>
<p>Ides – XX</p>
<p>Midwinter (winter solstice), the last day of the year, falls on the day after the end of Yule</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Okay that's a lot to swallow. So I'll close out with a listing of a lot of the common holidays by HHD or season and who they're dedicated to and follow it up with the names of the days of the week at the end.</p>
<p><strong>Midsummer</strong> (summer solstice): Sacred to Arden, Arn, Dame Torren, Frey, Kamien, Kunulo, Oghma, Note, Snorri Horrnison, Vergrimm Earthsblood, Vionir, Yngret Yellow-hair, Zelton; <strong>Midsummer Eve</strong> sacred to Grox; <strong>Lith</strong> (Midsummer Eve - Bilis); <strong>Night of Goblins</strong> (Midsummer Night – Snuurge)</p>
<p><strong>Midwinter </strong>(winter solstice): Sacred to Dame Torren, Kostchtchie, Kunulo, Oghma, Note, Snorri Horrnison, Vergrimm Earthsblood, Vionir, Yngret Yellow-hair, Zelton; <strong>Midwinter Eve</strong> sacred to Grox; <strong>Commons</strong> (last Thingsdag of the year, i.e. Midwinter Eve – Thyr); <strong>Yule Blót</strong> (Midwinter – Wotan); <strong>Korochun</strong> (Midwinter – Chernobog); <strong>Yuletide</strong> (Midwinter Eve – Father Poga); <strong>Hogmanay</strong> (Midwinter – Northlander/Heldring [hill-men {Alfar} banish the trolls/trow into the sea], also called Trollalay); <strong>New Year Eve</strong> (Midwinter – Dame Torren, Oghma, Note); <strong>Saining</strong> (New Year day, the day after Midwinter – Father Poga, The Whiskey Man); <strong>Modraniht</strong> “Mother’s Night” (Yuletide Eve – Ceres, Hester, Rema, Cybele {Shupnikkurat}, [The Goddess])</p>
<p><strong>Cusp of Freya </strong>(vernal equinox): Sacred to Rhiann, Snorri Horrnison, Vergrimm Earthsblood, Yngret Yellow-hair, Zelton; <strong>Feast of Freya</strong> (Cusp of Freya – Freya); <strong>Day of Blood</strong> (Cusp of Freya – Cybele); <strong>Cusp of Freya Eve</strong> sacred to Grox;</p>
<p><strong>Cusp of Mithras</strong> (autumnal equinox): Sacred to Rhiann, Snorri Horrnison, Vergrimm Earthsblood, Yngret Yellow-hair, Zelton; <strong>Cusp of Mithras Eve</strong> sacred to Grox;</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Imbolg</strong> (first day of spring): Sacred to Brigid, Freya</p>
<p><strong>Beltane</strong> (first day of summer): Sacred to XX;</p>
<p><strong>Lammastide</strong> (first day of autumn): Ceres, Pekko, Telophus; <strong>Harvest Festival</strong> (Lammastide – Pekko)</p>
<p><strong>Day of the Dead</strong> (first day of winter): Sacred to Orcus; <strong>Samhain</strong> (last night of autumn – Cybele, Chernobog); <strong>Winter Nights</strong> (first three nights of winter – Odin); <strong>Winter Night Blót</strong> (first night of winter hearth-lighting ritual – Odin [Wotan], Loki [Loptr]); <strong>Dísablot</strong> (first night of Winter Nights – the dísir, Valkyries, and Norns);</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Other Common Holidays:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Spring</strong></p>
<p>First thaw – Telophus</p>
<p>Planting – Telophus</p>
<p>Lover’s Day (first bloom of spring) – Zadastha</p>
<p>Spring migrations – Kakobovia</p>
<p>Grape Harvest (three days in early spring) – Bacchus-Dionysus</p>
<p>Spring flood season – Kamien</p>
<p>Akitu-festival – Utu, Ishtar, Tammuz</p>
<p>Summer Blót (four weeks after vernal equinox) – Odin (Wotan)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Summer</strong></p>
<p>Summer Ides (fifteenth of Tiwemond, Daan, and Haymond) – Darach-Albith</p>
<p>Walpurgis Night (last night of Tiwemond/Fifthmonth) – Cybele</p>
<p>Accounds (Calends of Haymond once every 5 years) – Demogorgon</p>
<p>Crafts festivals (late summer) – Dre’uain</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Autumn</strong></p>
<p>Fall flood season – Kamien</p>
<p>Autumn Blót (four weeks after autumn equinox) – Odin (Wotan)</p>
<p>Harvest Moon (full moon closest to Cusp of Mithras): Sacred to Freya</p>
<p>Grape Harvest (three days in late autumn) – Bacchus-Dionysus</p>
<p>Hunter’s Moon (first full moon after Harvest Moon): Sacred to XX</p>
<p>Álfablót (near end of autumn season after harvest in Blótmond/Tenthmond) – the Alfar (elves)</p>
<p>Brewers’ Fest (first week of Blótmond): Sacred to Pekko</p>
<p>First frost – Telophus</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Winter</strong></p>
<p>Feast of Fools (Oeros 6th): Sacred to Pekko; Gnomish Grand Masquerade (Feast of Fools day – Hammer Mittelschmerz)</p>
<p>Orenday (first full moon after Midwinter) – Dwerfater, Barator, (formerly Father Poga)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Other</strong></p>
<p>Calends (first day of each month): Each is devoted to one or more gods</p>
<p>Ides (day of the fifteenth night of each month – separates the fortnights): Each is devoted to one or more gods. All of the Summer Ides (Tiwemond, Daan, and Haymond) are held sacred to Darach-Albith</p>
<p>Full Moon (nights when Narrah is full): Sacred to Crocutus, Hecate</p>
<p>Dark Moon (nights when Sybil is full): Sacred to Cybele, Drahltuz</p>
<p>New Moon (nights when Narrah is new): All seasons – Althunak, Crocutus, Freya, Mirkeer, Vionir; Summer – X; Winter – Kostchtchie</p>
<p>Double Moon (rare occurrence when both Narrah and Sybil are full at the same time – approx. once every 2–3 years, sometimes as much as 7 years): Sacred to Hecate</p>
<p>Blood Moon (nights when excessive atmospheric dust or other conditions make Narrah appear to be red): Sacred to Orcus</p>
<p>Horned Moon (nights when Narrah is one-quarter waxing or three-quarters waning): Sacred to Grotaag, Hecate, Orcus</p>
<p>Founders Day (days when cities or nations were founded): Sacred to Sefagreth</p>
<p>Lunar Eclipses (nights when Narrah is in eclipse): Sacred to Arden</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Moonless Night:</strong> Occurs once a month on a random night, not even the Reliquary of Jamboor can predict. Sacred to Shupnikkurat and Knem Koth (and Cybele) for raids by Nocturnals. Sacred as ritual nights to Crocutus, Mirkeer, Snuurge. (See Hawkmoon adventures for info on Moonless Night)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Days of the week: </strong>(dag means “day” and shows Heldring influence)</p>
<p>Solsdag (Solanus – Goddess of the Sun)</p>
<p>Ardsdag (Arden – God of Life, ironically a dead god [was formerly Anumesday])</p>
<p>Djinsdag (Da-Jin – God of Death)</p>
<p>Mootsdag (Market – day of Man’s commerce)</p>
<p>Manesdag (Manes – day of Man’s souls)</p>
<p>Sistersdag (Narrah and Sybil – Goddesses of the Moons)</p>
<p>Thingsdag (Heldring assembly – day of Man’s government)</p>
<p><strong>Weekly religious observances</strong></p>
<p>Solsdag: Toasts to Hammer Mittelschmerz</p>
<p>Manesdag: Sacrifices to Belphegor</p>
<p>Thingsdag: Contemplation of Yenomesh</p>
<p>Last Thingsdag of every month: Worship of Thyr</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 09 Jul 2015 21:46:47 +0000Greg A Vaughan3089 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/lost-lands-calendar#commentsTelling Time in the Lost Landshttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/telling-time-lost-lands
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Well, they've moved the Blog way down to the bottom of the page. So I guess we'll have to work harder to keep it relevant. So here's another peak behind the curtain.</p>
<p>One of the fundamental aspects of every campaign setting is how the passage of time is tracked. We tend to fall back on the familiar years, months, days, hours, etc. because it's easy to work with and its pretty transparent to the game. YOu don't have to try to calculate anything to remember how it all works. However, the more immersive a game gets the deeper into changes to the "norms" they can become. I remember trying to track the moon phases back in my old Dragonlance campaign with the three moons, one invisible, and it was a mess. The fact that it tied in with how magic worked made it even more difficult. So it pretty much got hand-waved in every game session.</p>
<p>For the Lost Lands I've tried to find a middle ground: familiar enough that a casual player can use it without any effort but unusual enough that is is distinctly Lost Lands. The fact that the Lost Lands has two moons partly reflects that (don't worry, I'm not getting into any complicated phase things) but really only comes up in flavor descriptions or super-specific adventure contexts. More importantly, I've now finished working out how times works in general in the Lost Lands. And more important than that, I think, it has both a mechanical and historical internal consistency so that one who wants to immerse that dep in lore can see how it got there and one who doesn't can just use it as is.</p>
<p>So with that preamble, here are my notes on time tracking in the Lost Lands. There are in an unpolished format so while this information will be included in the campaign setting, it won't be quite this in-depth in its details. Since you're going to start seeing references to it in upcoming products in the meantime, I wanted it to make some sense while you await the campaign setting. So here we go:</p>
<p>The concept of Time in the Lost Lands begins with the foundational quasi-religion based around The Blessed Tesseract (you'll recall mention of the Tesseract from the very first bit of fluff I released online about the campaign setting a while back...or maybe not...it was a pretty obscure reference but actually ties in very intimately with and is foundational to a great many things in the world). This religion/philosophy has existed for thousands of years. It does not have much of an established church (though it has at times in the past and a few smaller cults still eke out an existence at the corners of society) but most major organized religions and societies acknowledge, reference, and in some cases even venerate The Blessed Tesseract. </p>
<p>The main cathedral in the imperial capital at Courghais, for example, is known<br />
as the Cathedral of the Tesseract. It is not dedicated to the Tesseract, instead<br />
venerating the Foerdewaith pantheon, but does incorporate the Tesseract into<br />
much of its stylistic décor and motifs. </p>
<p>From a strictly mathematical viewpoint (really beyond the scope of most Lost Lands references of the Tesseract) that was incorporated into time calculations (among other things), the Tesseract’s mathematical and therefore universal properties are as follows: </p>
<p>Tesseract – hypercube (4-dimensional cube)<br />
24 squares faces<br />
8 cuboidal cells<br />
32 edges<br />
16 vertices </p>
<p>Holy Symbol of the Blessed Tesseract: usually depicted as a square with 4 rays<br />
extending outward to represent the 4 lines that extend from each vertex to other<br />
vertices, sometimes illustrated as a 3-D Schlegal diagram (though such an illustration would likely blow the mind of all but the most erudite denizens of the Lost Lands). </p>
<p>Religious derivations: The Cross of Thyr is actually a “tree,” that is, a net<br />
polygon comprised of 8 connected 3-D cubes from unfolding the 4-D Tesseract.<br />
This is an example of a modern religion incorporating the iconography/principles<br />
of the Tesseract, even though probably no practitioners of the model religion even understand this relationship anymore. The sword symbol of Muir is essentially an inverted version of this. </p>
<p>More info will be given on the concept of The Blessed Tesseract and its<br />
importance beyond simply a geometric concept in future books. </p>
<p>Measurements of Time<br />
1 Day = 24 hours as subdivided by the concept of the Tesseract’s 24 faces. Some<br />
cultures divide days into units based on the 8 cells or 16 vertices, but these<br />
are not present in the mainstream timekeeping of the Lost Lands which sticks to<br />
the 24 faces representing 24 1-hour increments.<br />
1 Week = 7 days, there are no weekends vs. weekdays<br />
1 Fortnight = 2 weeks + a festival day between, i.e. 15 days (literally 14<br />
nights/15 days)<br />
1 Month = 30 days, 4 7-day weeks with 2 festival days, no weekends/sabbath<br />
(7-1-7-7-1-7) = 30 days, so it basically works out that there is a repeating festival day every two weeks (…7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7-7-1-7…), though 4 High Holy Days<br />
throughout the year placed on the equinoxes and solstices break that pattern up to some extent.<br />
2 Fortnights is considered a month even though 2 “true” fortnights would<br />
technically only be 29 days when counting nights specifically (28 nights/29<br />
days), but the night of the final day before a new month is understood to be<br />
included as well for ease of using 2 fortnights to describe a 1-month period (29<br />
nights/30 days). High Holy Days are not considered in calculation of fortnights.<br />
1 Year = 12 months + 4 High Holy Days = 364 days </p>
<p>24 hours per day based on Tesseract, as mentioned, originally demarcated hours between day and night based on counting the knuckles of each hand (12 knuckles apiece excluding<br />
thumbs--the concept of three knuckles per hand for 8 fingers also extends use of<br />
Tesseract 8-cell time increments in some fringe cultures). Hours are divided between<br />
midnight and noon and named by its number: 1st hour, 2nd hour, 3rd hour, etc.<br />
Hours after midnight are considered to be “of the prime”, while hours after noon<br />
are considered to be “of the non”. </p>
<p>The term “bells” can be used to refer to hours but usually only in nautical<br />
settings because of the use of the ship’s bell to demarcate time throughout the<br />
24-hour clock. Though even in land-locked areas, bells of city towers or<br />
monasteries are often rung to note at least the daylight hours (roughly 6th hour<br />
prime to 9th hour non). </p>
<p>Modern concepts of minute and second increments are instead based on lengths of<br />
spell durations as observed and recorded by mages since the early days of Khemit<br />
(or before) and later applied to commerce in the form of rented time on a public<br />
millstone. </p>
<p>Hours are divided into 6 10-minute periods, each called a turn or turn-of-the-glass, or just glass (for turning over a 10-minute hourglass that is used to determine the usage/charging rates of a millstone)<br />
Turns are divided into 10 1-minute periods, each called a tenth (for 1/10th of a turn and the number of times a standard* millstone turns in a 1-minute period)<br />
Tenths are divided into 10 6-second periods, each called a round (for the length of time it takes a standard* millstone to complete one revolution) </p>
<p>Time Unit Summary:<br />
6-second intervals = rounds<br />
Minutes = tenths<br />
10-minutes intervals = turns (also turns-of-the-glass or glasses)<br />
Hours = hours </p>
<p>*The Hyperborean Empire created a standardized millstone size and speed of<br />
rotation on which turns and rounds were based. Millstones since then often have<br />
great variability, but the standardized time units have remained. </p>
<p><strong>Lost Lands Clocks </strong><br />
Most Lost Lands clocks’ outer edges mark hours numbered as 1-12 and turns as<br />
tic-marks between the hours (so that the clock face will match up and largely correspond<br />
to real-world clocks for ease of understanding, though there are 5 tic-marks between each number rather than the 4 tic-marks on a real-world clock since it is counting 6 turns between number instead of 5 minutes). In this context the term glass is commonly used instead of turn (because it implies a tangible thing being counted, i.e. the number of the hourglass that has been turned since the start of the hour, plus it just sounds less “gamey” as flavor text). Sample time readings would be: </p>
<p>1st hour, 1 glass<br />
3rd hour non<br />
7th hour, 3 glass<br />
9th hour, 5 glass<br />
10th hour prime<br />
Midnight (or Prime), Noon (or Non) </p>
<p>Other than at the turning of an actual hour (straight up 1 o’clock, for<br />
instance), the use of “prime” or “non” would be reserved for extremely formal<br />
occasions or occasions of tactical importance (e.g. “The attack will begin at<br />
3rd hour prime, 2 glass.”). For extremely formal occasions it would be fully<br />
elongated into “5th hour of the non” or “10th hour, 3 glasses of the prime”. </p>
<p>A long, thick hand marks the hours and glasses on the clock, clicking forward one tic-mark once every 10 minutes (rather than every 1-minute like a real-world clock). </p>
<p>A second, short wedge-shaped hand marks time on an inner circle usually of Hyperborean<br />
numbers (read: Roman numerals) that shows tenths (Most clocks will not include<br />
this hand, considering it too costly to add and unnecessary for most every-day<br />
needs that typically don't require the precision of less than a 10-minute<br />
interval). </p>
<p>Beyond that, only the most expensive and complex clocks will include a third<br />
hand (short and thin) for rounds (these click off along the inner circle using<br />
each tenth as a single movement of the hand that equals 6 seconds). There is no<br />
true 1-second hand. </p>
<p>Each full revolution of the rounds hand (if the clock has one) corresponds to<br />
one movement of the tenths hand (if the clock has one). Each full revolution of<br />
the tenths hand corresponds to a single movement of the hour/glass hand (usually<br />
referred to simply as the “hourglass”). </p>
<p>In short the use of clocks to mark time in the Lost Lands is extremely<br />
complicated because the intervals are based on mundane- and/or<br />
magical-but-measurable things like sun movements, length of spells, and milling<br />
times using hourglasses rather than our relatively simple concept of hours simply divided into, minutes equally divided into seconds. </p>
<p>Official timekeepers in the Lost Lands are usually known as “Counters” from<br />
their original job of counting revolutions of the millstone. </p>
<p>Spell duration/game timing translations:<br />
Pathfinder rounds = rounds<br />
S&amp;W rounds = tenths<br />
S&amp;W turns = turns, turns-of-the-glass, or glasses</p>
<p>With this construction of Lost Lands times, I wanted to give the campaign both its own unique feel and incorporate actual game elements that would make sense as far as time measurement being based upon it. Spell durations is one of the most universal ways to do so in-game. I also wanted to incorporate the time-tracking attributes of both the S&amp;W and PF game systems together and do it in such a way that it is not heavy-handed or breaks the players' immersion into the game. Hence while turns and rounds exist as time units, they're almost never referred to in regards to telling time. A turn would be called a glass and a round is hardly ever referenced in such a context, while both still continue to exist, function, and incorporate these age-old game elements in a meaningful and rational way.</p>
<p>So there you go. I hope this was at least somewhat interesting and gives a taste of the familiar-but-different game world that is the Lost Lands.</p>
<p>Greg</p>
<p>P.S. If you haven't seen our latest Lost Lands product's Kickstarter, head over and check it out. Only 3 days to go!!</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 20 May 2015 16:43:39 +0000Greg A Vaughan3065 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/telling-time-lost-lands#commentsNTRPG Con Game Registration is Uphttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/ntrpg-con-game-registration
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Opened up last night. If you're going, hurry and sign up. They tend to fill up pretty fast.</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 15 Apr 2015 15:22:51 +0000Greg A Vaughan3042 at https://www.froggodgames.comhttps://www.froggodgames.com/blog/ntrpg-con-game-registration#comments